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66 Aram-Geshur Arama, Meir "

With Armaia " means "Aramaia" means "one of the

Aramean'' was also given

to it

by

Christians.

the Syrians, even in the Peshitta, "

"heathen," -while people of Aram. "

In Palestinian sources the terms

Aram " and " Arameans " are used to designate Rome and the Romans the Palestinian pronunciation of the word " Aromi " may have served to screen "



what they dared not say

In against the Romans. however, D"IX, for Rome, is a mistake of the copyist; it should read DlIX, Edom.

most

cases,

Bibliography NMdeke, Z. D. 31. Q. xxv. of Levy, Kohut, and Jastrow.

j.

115-120





An Aramean

district

and a

kingdom near Maachah (II Sam. xv. 8) Aram-Maachah), and associated with it in Josh.

fled

Biblical references are to places in this region. The name is not found in Babylonian or Assyrian inscriptions, but occurs as Nahrima in three of the ElNahrima is associated with the letters.

Amama

Hittites— a fact which confirms the above,

Dictionaries

small 13.

considerable extent on both sides of the Euphrates, extending east as far as the Tigris and west to the Orontes, running south not only to Hamath, but to Kadesh (compare Muller, ib. pp. 249-267). All the

j.

(see xiii.

David married the daughter of its king (II Sam. She became the mother of Absalom, who thither after killing his brother Amnon (II Sam.

3).

Syria, of

j.

ARAM-MAACHAH

Chron. xix. 6): A district south of Damascus, bordering on the transJordanic territory of Manasseh. Maachah is said in Gen. xxii. 24 to have been a descendant of Nahor, Abraham's brother, and the territory called after him is declared in Josh. xiii. 13 not to have been conquered in the first Israelitish settlement of Canaan. David made its petty king tributary (II Sam. x.6-8), and by the time of the chronicler, Maachah was regarded as an ancestress of a Manassite clan Strangely enough, II Sam. x. 6 (I Chron. vii. 16). has "king Maacah," which makes it doubtful if Aram-Maachah is the correct form. G. A. B. j jr. (I

ARAM-NAHARAIM

(translated as " Mesoregion somewhat ill-defined, mentioned six times in the Bible. In the title of Ps. l.., and in I Chron. xix. 6, it is used for the region beyond the Euphrates (compare II Sam. x. 16). It is stated in Judges iii. 8, 10, that the king of AramNaharaim invaded Palestine. Gen. xxiv. 10 calls the region of Haran, Aram-Naharaim (compare Gen. xxviii. 10); while Deut. xxiii. 5 calls Pethor, the home of Balaam, a city of Aram-Naharaim. Pethor appears as a city of the region near the Euphrates in a list of Thothmes III. in the fifteenth century B.C. (compare Muller, " Asien und Europa," p. 267), and in an inscription of Shalmaneser II. of the ninth century B.C. (compare Schrader, "K. B." ii. 163) as a city west of that river. Aram-Naharaim, literally, "Aram of the two rivers," suggested to the ancients the region between the Euphrates and the Tigris to some moderns, that

potamia "in A. V.):

A



between the Euphrates and Chaboras (Habur) (see Kiepert, "Lehrbuchder AlteuGeographie," p. 154); to others, the Euphrates and Orontes (Howorth, in

"Academy,"

Jan. 17, 1891, p. 65); while

still

others

Meyer (" Gesch. iEgyptens," p. 227), Muller (" Asien und Europa, " pp. 249 etseq.), and Moore (Commentary on Judges, pp. 87, 89) are probably right in regarding the Hebrew dual as fictitious. If plural, it was no doubt the country called by the Egyptians "Naharin," an Aramaic name, meaning "the land of the rivers." It embraced a select different rivers.

Sam.

chief city

x. 6, 8):

A district of

was Rehob

or Beth-

G. A. B.

jr.

ARAM-ZOBAH

G. A. B.

jr.

which the

(II

Rehob, associated with Aram-Zobah as hostile to David. Num. xiii. 21 and Judges xviii. 28 place a Beth-Rehob in the Lebanon region near Dan. Moore (Commentary on Judges, p." 399) conjecturally identifies it with Panbas.

xiii. 38). j.

view taken G. A. B.

jr.

ABAM-REHOB

L. G.

sr.

ARAM-GESHUR

iii.

66

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

(Ps. lx., title):

The

capital of

one time of considerable imThe statement in I Sam. xiv. 47, that its portance. king fought with Saul, has hitherto been unconfirmed. No such doubt, however, attaches to the account of the war of its king Hadadezer with David, who made the kingdom tributary to Israel In this war Hadadezer brought to his (II Sam. x.). help Arameans from beyond the Euphrates (II Sam. Upon the accession of Solomon, Zobah bex. 16). came independent of Israel (compare I Kings xi. 23 Berothai, a city belonging to Hadadezer et seq.). (II Sam. viii. 8) is identified by many with Berothah (Ezek. xlvii. 16), which was between Hamath and Damascus. Zobah was probably located near this city, though Halevy claims to have identified Zobah with Chalkis. After the tenth century, Zobah is not mentioned in the Bible, but the city of Subiti, which is mentioned in the annals of Assurbanipal as having been conquered by him in the seventh century, is probably identical with it (compare Schrader, " K. B. " ii. 217). The same city is mentioned in some broken cuneiform lists of towns in connection with Hamath and Damascus.

an Aramean

Bibliography

Lag j.

state, at



Schrader, K. B. ii. 121 et seq.; Delitzsch, i pp. 279 et seq.

Wo

das Parodies

G. A. B.

jr.

ARAMA, DAVID BEN ABRAHAM binical author, born in Turkey, 1525





Rab-

lived in Salo-

When barely twenty years old, he published Perush 'al Sefer Mishneh Torah," a commentary on Maimonides' Yad ha-Hazakah (Salonica, 15461572 second edition, Amsterdam, 1706). He also is the author of "Teshubot," consisting of a commentary on difficult Talmudic passages (Constantinople, 1579), which seems to be entirely lost. nica. "



Michael, Or ha-Hayyim, schneider, Cat. Bodl. No. 4790.

Bibliography: L.

No. 694; Steln-

G. A. D.

g.

ARAMA, ISAAC BEN MOSES and author born about 1420





Spanish rabbi

died in Naples 1494.

He was at first principal of a rabbinical academy at Zamora (probably his birthplace) then he received a call as rabbi and preacher from the community at